The Anatomy of Melancholy

Shechem saw Dinah, Leah’s daughter, and violated her, Genesis 34:3; Jacob saw Rachel, 29:17, “for she was beautiful and fair”; David caught sight of Bathsheba from a distance, 2 Samuel 11:2; the elders saw Susanna; and Strato of Orthomenus saw beautiful Aristoclea, the daughter of Theophanes, bathing at the fountain of Hercyne in Lebadea. They were captivated in an instant. “The eyes saw; flames seized the heart.” Amnon fell ill for Tamar’s sake, 2 Samuel 13:2.

Esther’s beauty was such that she found favour not only in the eyes of Ahasuerus but in those of everyone who looked at her. Gerson, Origen and some others maintained that Christ himself was the fairest of the sons of men, with Joseph next to him: “more beautiful than the sons of men.” They insist that this should be understood literally: his bodily appearance was such that he won the affection and favour of everyone who looked at him.

Joseph was so handsome that, as the Ordinary Gloss puts it, “the girls ran along the wall and to the windows”: they ran to the tops of the walls and to the windows to gaze at him, as we commonly do to see some great personage pass by. Matthew Paris similarly describes the Empress Matilda passing through Cologne. The Jesuit Father Morales says as much of the Virgin Mary.

Antony had no sooner seen Cleopatra, says Appian, book 1, than he fell in love with her. Theseus, at his first sight of Helen, was so infatuated that he considered he would be the happiest man in the world if he could possess her. To that end he knelt and made impassioned prayers to the gods.

Charicles happened to catch sight of that exquisite image of smiling Venus, naked in her temple. He stood gazing for a long time in astonishment, then burst into that wildly passionate speech: “O fortunate god Mars, who was bound in chains and made a laughingstock for her sake!” Unable to restrain himself, he kissed her image I do not know how many times, and earnestly wished to be disgraced as Mars had been. And what did he do that his betters had not already done?

——and one of the more lighthearted gods wishes To be disgraced in just this way——

When Venus first came to heaven, her beauty was such that, as my author says, all the gods flocked around to greet her, and each went to Jupiter to ask for her as his wife. When handsome Antiochus appeared, his beauty shone like a candle in the dark. Everyone’s eyes, as Xenophon describes it, were immediately fixed on him, and they were so moved by the sight that they could not hide their feelings: their gestures and looks revealed and expressed them.

Those other senses, hearing and touch, may penetrate and affect us deeply, but none so deeply or so powerfully as sight. “Briseis’s beauty moved Achilles in the midst of warfare”: Achilles was moved in the middle of battle by beautiful Briseis; Ajax by Tecmessa. Judith captivated that great commander Holofernes; Delilah, Samson; Rosamund, Henry II; and Roxelana, Suleiman the Magnificent, and so on.

Being beautiful, a woman conquers Both iron and fire.

A beautiful woman overcomes fire and sword.